Prior to the specialized division of the provision of health care services and devices, the prescribing and the providing of vision medical devices, including eye glasses and contact lenses, rested with the eye doctor, or optometrist. A patient would be examined by the doctor, who would determine whether the patient needed glasses (or contact lenses); and, if so, would determine not only the correction of the eye lenses needed but also the source from which the eye glasses would be procured. The doctor's office would order the prescribed eye glasses; and, upon the receipt of the glasses at the doctor's office, the patient would be called back to the office, and the glasses would be fitted to the patient. Any subsequent correction or modification of the glasses, frames, and/or prescription would be ordered by the doctor or his/her office from the supplier of the glasses.
Similar methods were followed with other medical devices to be provided to a patient. For example, foot orthotics would be prescribed and ordered by the doctor, to be subsequently fitted to the patient's shoes and feet upon a return visit to the doctor's office. Hearing devices, joint braces, and prostheses are other examples of medical devices that have been provided to a patient under the sole discretion of a medical care and/or device provider.